Cheney: I’d Make Same Decision To Invade Iraq ‘In A Minute’

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney has no regrets about the Iraq War.

In a new Showtime documentary about the vice president under President George W. Bush, Cheney said that he would make the same decision to invade Iraq.

“I did what I did. It’s all on the public record and I feel very good about it,” Cheney said in “The World According To Dick Cheney.” “If I had to do it over again, I’d do it in a minute.”

Cheney revealed in the film that he doesn’t consider waterboarding torture.

“First and foremost, (it’s) your responsibility to safeguard the United States of America and the lives of its citizens. That’s not a close call for me,” Cheney said.

Cheney also described what it was like for him the day America was attacked on 9/11.

“I was thinking about the threat we were faced with,” Cheney explained. “I was thinking about what we had to do to preserve the legitimacy of the government, to make certain there were successors in line ready to go if the president and I were taken out.”

R.J. Cutler, the producer behind the Cheney documentary, said it was important for the former vice president to go on record about his career.

“My goal was not to put him on trial but to get his voice to be the driving force of this film,” Cutler said.

Director Greg Finton said Cheney “is arguably the most powerful non-presidential figure we’ve ever had in this country.”

The Iraq War, which began on March 20, 2003, was mired in controversy after the Bush administration said the reason to invade was because former dictator Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Despite no such weapons being found, Hussein’s regime was toppled and the former leader was captured in December 2003 and executed in 2006 after being convicted of charges in the slaughter of nearly 150 Iraqi Shi’ites in 1982. Over 4,400 American soldiers lost their lives in the war that officially ended Dec. 18, 2011.